Economic Services

INTRODUCTION:

The Department was created to serve as a “one stop shop” for the delivery and discharge of economic empowerment initiatives with regards to the growing inequality, poverty and violent displacement of Women, Children and other vulnerable groups. The establishment of the Department became necessary in order to deliver on the empowerment objectives of liberating women and other vulnerable groups from abject poverty, reduce gender inequality as well as seek intervention funds to execute its empowerment objectives in line with the blueprint of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from development partners.

MANDATE OF THE DEPARTMENT:

To coordinate integrated economic services delivery for women and other vulnerable groups of the Ministry.

VISION OF THE DEPARTMENT:

To ensure that all grassroots women and other vulnerable groups (socially disadvantaged persons) in Nigeria are economically empowered.

MISSION OF THE DEPARTMENT:

The mission of the Department is to:

• Provide training in various skills to women and other vulnerable persons through the established skills acquisition Centres;
• Support enterprise development through the provision of credit facilities
• Promote networking among women entrepreneurs
• Provide empowerment materials for women and other vulnerable groups across the 36 States of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

STRUCTURE OF THE DEPARTMENT:

The Economic Services Department is divided into two Divisions namely:

• Cooperatives Development Division: Further divided into:
• i. Micro Credit
• ii. Cooperative Development Units.
• Skills Development Division: Further divided into:
• i. Skills Development
• ii. Enterprise Development Units.

STAFF STRENGTH:

As at date, the Staff strength responsible for implementing the various programmes in the Department is 89.

FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT:

The functions of Economic Services Department cut across key areas of economic empowerment of Women and other vulnerable groups. These functions include among others:

• i. Development and implementation of the National Policy on Women’s Economic Empowerment
• iii. Support for Women in the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises;
• iv. Promote networking among women entrepreneurs for business growth and sustainability
• v. Promote establishment of Skills Acquisition Centres for Women and Girls;
• vi. Managing the Ministry’s Micro-credit schemes for women;
• vii. Disseminating information and providing technical support to women cooperatives/associations;
• viii. Support and encourage women entrepreneurs on the use of ICT application in business transactions.
• ix. Organizing capacity workshop for women on financial inclusion and financial literacy etc.
• x. Promote establishment of cottage industrial for women and gins
• xi. Promote mentoring programme for woman entrepreneurship
• xii. Soliciting assistance, loans and credit facilities from financial institutions for women co-operative groups.